I am pretty excited about today's craft share but I had a somewhat heart stopping moment on my way home from work Wednesday evening... RonChops had gotten the mail and sent me this text message.
You see... When RonChops got the mail... on the cover (yes that's right... The COVER) of this months MS Living was pretty much the exact project I was going to share today (or so it appeared). I was on a client call on my way home but called him the split second I hung up to get all of the gory details.
Ron and I have a good communication thing going on. Even with those 5 simple words.. and nothing else... I knew exactly what he meant. I had shared today's craft project with him the previous Sunday and was pretty darn excited about it... he knew it was Friday's post... so when he said "Martha beat you to it" I knew he meant my egg project. Gulp.
By the time I called him he had already read the entire article (complete with how-tos) and was in the process of calming me down (have I mentioned how much I love RonChops lately... well I do)! He's the coolest. It looked the same but was completely and totally different. Heart palpation's over.. I had to hustle home to read the article to see what this was all about!
So here we go... this is my take on dyeing eggs using a few easy to obtain items to make them extra special (and it's not a killer amount of work either)... for once... a LC project that will not give you muscle fatigue (it's about time right?!?!?!).
First you will need 400 teal felt pieces cut into little bird, lamb and chick shapes...since there is no Sizzix die for this you will need to cut them by hand... I am kidding you guys. Calm down. No felt in this project. No excessive amount of small shapes. Honest to peanuts... hmmmmm.... but now that I mention it I should have worked some in. hehehe. KIDDING. Just KIDDING!
What you need:
Eggs (go figure)
Basic egg dyeing kit
Freezer paper
Blue painters tape (available at your local hardware store)
Your favorite punch(s)
The whole freezer paper thing (and frankly... this is me being Frank again)... this project would have never happened if it had not been for you... my dear readers. You ALL basically MADE me buy freezer paper to do the applique work.. remember???... Once I saw how cool that stuff was... I knew it was going to find it's way into other projects!
As for the blue painters tape... I think it's crucial that you use this tape. It's wild stuff. Kinda sorta water proof and it does not leave a weird sticky film behind. RonChops and I have painted almost our entire house so we have LOTS on hand.
Let's get started shall we?
You are going to want to cut your freezer paper into strips to roughly match the width of your painters tape. Attach the painters tape to the shiny side of the freezer paper.
Using your punches... punch out your shapes on the painters tape/freezer paper combo.
This basically turns your punched shapes into stickers made from painters tape.
Cool right?
I found it works best if you peel from the blue tape side and not the freezer paper side.
You will know what I mean once you give this a shot.
Start placing your new "stickers" onto your boiled or hollowed out eggs.
For most of my eggs... I used some fairly large and not as detailed punches.
But I decided to get crafty and use some really fine detail punches
(cause I am crazy like that)
So here is a little tip on peeling these fine detail stickers off of the freezer paper.
Punch your super fine detail punches on the edge of the freezer paper / blue tape combo
(where you have some white showing through)
It gives you a white part to grab a hold of and peel away from.
Be really careful with the fine detail pieces...
...as they tend to bend and are a little harder to place.
So remember how I mentioned hollowed out eggs a second ago.
Guess what?
Go ahead... guess.
Hallowed out eggs do not sink like regular eggs.
They float.
The titanic they are not (that was horrible I know).
Even when you submerge them and try to fill them up with dye.
The little suckers still float.
I recommend dyeing them first...
and THEN hollowing them out.
HERE are some tips on hollowing eggs.
So you have your sticker covered eggs...
They look pretty awesome...
Let them dry a little while... like 10 minutes.
and...
Peel the stickers off to reveal the white underneath!
I did sticker stripes too. That was fun!
Here is a close-up of a purple egg with hearts and butterflies.
...and a batch of some of my other eggs...
Soo pretty!
The detail is amazing.
And there is no sticky residue to worry about...
...even when you submerge the eggs for a while to get them nice and dark!
Just one mention.. you can use stickers too...
...but I liked doing it this way because the detail of the punches is super nice.
...and that painters tape holds up really well under the water/vinegar combo.
So that's it for today! I hope you will give these a try! It's super easy and fun too!.. oh and that bunny egg below... that's the deform-o floater. He got all messed up. Poor lamb.
LOLLY.... what about the giveaway????
So I guess I need to announce the winner for the topiary giveaway right?
hmmmm.... I'll be right back. I need to go to random.org and generate a number between 1 and 318 (wow you guys... really... 318 entries)... YOU GO GIRLS!
Here you go... the winner is: Barbara Snyder of Barbara's Scraps. Barbara... I'll be in touch today to get your address!
So... for real this time... that's all I got. I'll have another giveaway soon - so keep your eyeballs peeled ok!
Lucky Friday the 13th HUGS (I miss you Nanny).
O.M.T. Guess what next week is?
P.S. You guys ready?
P.S.S.T. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
